👋Welcome to Sun’s Personal Page
I’m Xiaozhong Sun, a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. I’m currently in the job market. My research interests include:
- Economic Development
- Spatial Inequality
- Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems
- Decentralized Governance Structure
- The Application of Machine Learning in Remote Sensing and Social Sensing
- Sustainable Development
- Urban Land Management
- Housing Market
- Infrastructure Development
- Resilience to Climate Change
About me
I obtained my Ph.D. in Regional Science at Cornell University in April 2023. My dissertation was on Regional Inequality in China, under the supervision of Prof. Ravi Kanbur, Prof. Kieran Donaghy, and Prof. Shanjun Li.
My research interests primarily revolve around comprehending the mechanisms that drive the spatial distribution of people and economic activity. My long-term objectives are to promote sustainable growth facing mounting challenges such as increasing inequality, lack of affordable housing, and climate change. Additionally, I am interested in uncovering the interplay between market and institutional factors and developing innovative strategies to address real-world challenges that result in socially desirable outcomes.
My past research examines the role of policy instruments in shaping regional economic development and the implications of these policies for regional disparities using quantitative empirical methods to identify causal mechanisms of policy-related economic shocks, emphasizing their spatial characteristics. My research now centers around studying the dynamic distribution of human economic activities using a multitemporal multimodel data fusion machine learning framework that integrates social and remote sensing data to measure spatial inequality and environmental impacts of land use change. My long-term career goal is to construct a data-driven framework that monitors real-time social and environmental changes and provides insights through analyzing historical data to inform policy-making and sustainable urban planning.
Before joining the Ph.D. program, I was a former city and regional planning student in the master’s program at Cornell University. I also hold a master’s degree in land use management from the Renmin University of China and a B.E. in land use management from Nanjing Agricultural University. My interdisciplinary training in economics, geography, urban planning, and public administration has prepared me to approach research questions from a unique perspective. My diverse background allows me to think outside the box and identify critical interconnections between seemingly disparate fields.
In addition to my academic interests, I am closely following the ongoing renaissance of neuroscience and neurobiology. I am interested in exploring how these fields can dissolve the boundaries between nature and social science. I am also passionate about the latest advancements in AI technology and interested in leveraging these technologies to build a decentralized, democratic architecture in the internet and the real world.
Contact
If you’d like to get in touch, feel free to email me at xs243@cornell.edu or sunxz515@gmail.com.